Engaged equals safe and strong
We must tackle the tough issues to create strong communities, says the president and CEO of United Way Greater Toronto
Daniele Zanotti sits down in the break room at a social service agency in Richmond Hill — a room that smells of coffee and cleaner, like any similar room in any one of the dozens of agencies the United Way funds, run on coffee and untold thousands of volunteer hours. He wants to talk about that vast network of agencies, and the people who use them.
“A kid who goes to a food bank is usually holding the hand of a mom who is accessing employment support down the street at another agency,” he says, “and is taking care of a grandpa who is accessing one of our senior programs. So the value isn’t one particular solution or program but the combination of them.”
When Zanotti took over as president and CEO of United Way Greater Toronto in 2016, the Toronto chapter had just merged with the York Region chapter he’d headed from 2007 to 2015. When that organization merged with the Peel
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individuals who can apply,” explains Hassan, who has been part of the steering committee developing the fund.
The tiers include individuals with a project idea, local grassroots groups, larger grants for established groups and a final tier for collaborations between residents and organizations from outside the community.
“It ensures people aren’t left out of the process and that residents are always involved,” he says.
Though fundraising is still underway, the fund launched with a $250,000 gift from Daniels.
“It’s been a really awesome process to sit around a table and co-create the fund,” says Heela Omarkhail, senior manager of strategic initiatives at Daniels. “For me, representing a donor, that has been the most amazing part: to come into it not telling people what the fund is, but asking them how they’d like to be a part of it and what they’d like it to do for this community.”
One of the social service agency partners involved is the Regent Park Community Health Centre at Parliament and Dundas Sts.
“One of the most important indicators of wellness is a sense of belonging,” says Paulos Gebreyesus, executive director of the Regent Park Community Health Centre.
The centre, one of the service agency partners in the fund, has been active in the community for nearly 50 years and understands that social conditions have a tremendous effect on an individual’s health.
“We’ve seen the risk of alienation for long-term residents who see their neighbourhood radically transformed, and the alienation of families returning to the neighbourhood who are trying to reorient themselves to this new space, and we’ve seen other Torontonians who’ve chosen to make Regent Park their home.”
Gebreyesus says he and his organization want to nurture a sense of belonging and that an effective way of doing that is getting people involved in the process. That requires time and money — resources many residents don’t have — but the fund can help them participate and give a sense of control over the changes they face.
“Here’s my little piece, here’s my contribution to the change,” says Gebreyesus of that empowering feeling. “I think that’s a really important element of feeling at home, feeling like you belong and that you have a role to play and a voice.”
The fund should be launching the application process in early 2019 and have projects started by spring. Once up and running, the hope is it will be a model that can be adapted to the needs of other communities.
For his part, Hassan, who recently completed a political science degree at the University of Toronto and is thinking about law school, would like to see projects that are intergenerational and bridge the condo and social housing communities.
“There’s a lot more that we have in common than we think,” he says. “I want to see projects with condo residents alongside social housing tenants, and some of the most valuable things I’ve learned are from my elders. That mentorship is so important; youth can learn a lot from people who’ve been here a while.”
“One of the most important indicators of wellness is a sense of belonging.” PAULOS GEBREYESUS REGENT PARK COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE